Great Riverlands War
The Great Riverlands War, also known as the '''Second War of Brun's Independence, '''or simply the '''Great War, '''was a conflict originating in the Riverlands that lasted from 23 August 375 AT to 17 April 380 AT. It is known for its massive battles and campaigns that stretched near the entirety of the Riverlands. Origins of the Conflict Lower Noan Campaign (375-377) * Massacre at Rosseth's Ford (375) Following the raiding of Brun by Lord Callos the Gallant, news of King Brack's murder arrived by messenger pigeon to both his son Bard, and to Callos himself, with an urge to return back across the Noan River expediently. Bard, on the other hand, in a blind fury after hearing this news, raised the levy of Teraholm, as well as those immediately on hand, and marched quickly to seize the crossing at Rosseth's Ford. He placed 500 men to protect it, with another 2,500 men in the nearby hills. Callos, unaware of this waiting force, quickly attempted to storm the fords, and Bard sprung his trap, trapping Callos's forces and utterly slaughtering them. Following this, he sent messengers out to the sovereign lords of the six tribes, calling them into war. He marched what forces he had on hand across into Tryr and laid waste to the villages of Pris, Cross, and Shepherd's Croft. King Slovak Auchmes of Tryr, who had not expected such a rapid and violent response from the Dragonborn, quickly mustered his forces to respond to this threat, hiring the forces of the mercenary group, the Hydra's Battalion, to bolster his numbers. He sent a request to join the conflict to his allies in Rangos, but they were not quite yet willing to engage their country in warfare if not absolutely necessary. They refrained from answering Slovak's call, and he decided to just deal with the Brunians himself. * Battle of Toth (375) Bard, aware of his untenable position, quickly retreated back west across the Noan, and set up camp outside the city of Toth. He was soon joined by the forces of the Craws under Caeseth, the Ironhands under Wulroth, and the Gileads under his uncle, Lord Protector Snowfire. Slovak divided his army into two forces: the south wing of about 15,000, under Prince Trenchon Auchmes, was meant to engage and distract the main Brunian force near Toth, while the north wing of 14,000, under General Gordon Onock, was to muscle their way past any possible resistance and seize Teraholm. Slovak himself set up his headquarters at the small Dragonborn village of Gumtren, wishing to personally give orders to both wings at once. Bard, utilizing his superior knowledge of the terrain, marched his forces on the flank of Trenchon's forces, and ambushed them. Trenchon's forces were launched into almost immediate and utter chaos, and were driven utterly from the field, with Bard in hot pursuit. Slovak, hearing of this disaster, rode to the field and rallied the remnants of Trenchon's wing. They drove away Bard's forces, who were flushed with victory, and disorganized. Gathering up what men were left, the Tryrian forces retreated back to Gumtren. When asked by Onock if he wished him to continue his campaign, Slovak quickly lost his nerve and ordered a full-scale retreat back across the Noan. He set up camp on the eastern bank, while Bard set up camp on the west. Both armies settled in for winter. * Battle of Mothsville (376) Following Bard's coronation at Teraholm, he began to plan not a defense of his kingdom, as leaders on both sides were expecting, but an invasion of Tryr itself. Leaving behind a token force of 2,000 to stay at the camps, Bard marched his main force of 17,000 south to bypass the fords completely. He counted on his men's superior constitution to ignore the effects of the winter snows. Slovak, on the other hand, had planned out an extremely complex 3-pronged attack of three armies of 10,000 men apiece led by himself, his son Trenchon, and a third under General Onock. It was not until March 2nd that Slovak heard of a Dragonborn host entering through the Lothic valley to the south, which initially he did not believe, as Bard's ruse had worked so convincingly. It was only when Bard began to lay waste to the countryside that he realized he had been fooled, and quickly put his men on the road south, leaving 5,000 behind to protect the camp. His younger son, Fentic, distressed by the reports of the raiding, marched a force of 6,000 from the capital and Garrick to meet Bard in battle. It was near the village of Mothsville that Fentic engaged Bard's forces, with 17,000 men under Slovak miles away from arriving to assist. Unfortunately for Fentic, he had decided to fight Bard in the open field to prevent collateral damage, abandoning the high ground he had held in the town itself. Bard easily outflanked and utterly destroyed Fentic's army, killing the young prince just as Slovak's forces arrived. Unaware of his son's death and wishing to save his life, Slovak quickly deployed his own army and the two sides fought in a pitched battle. Wulroth was wounded in the engagement, as Bard sent his longtime family friend Rossarch with 3,000 men to outflank the exposed Tryrian right flank. The Tryrian line collapsed on itself, and the battle turned into a complete rout. The entirety of the Hydra's Battalion fled or surrendered, with Commander Shannon Escott himself offering his sword to Bard. Slovak's army fled to Garrick or back to their camp, completely demoralized. Bard ordered his men to burn the country, and split his forces into smaller groups to more successfully destroy the Tryrian's morale. Upon hearing of this disaster, the council of Rangos was forced to come to terms with a possible Brunian victory, which would mean the loss of their only economic and military ally, and have a potential rival easily eclipse them. Therefore, they chose unanimously to enter the war on the side of Tryr, and elected Geckos Witvote to serve as their king and military leader. * Battle of Hentoil's Hill (376) Geckos proceeded to name his son, Varagyr, a veteran of the Bandit Lord conflicts, the leader of the Rangosian army. Varagyr was known to be err perhaps a bit too much towards patience and cautiousness, which led him to miss out on certain opportunities and a distinct lack of ambitious thought, but he had a strong strategic mind, and was highly experienced in warfare. Varagyr marched south with 15,000, meeting up with the remnants of Slovak's army: a force of around 12,000 men. Varagyr took stock of the situation, and realized that the extremely vital crossroads of Crisshy, if held, could allow further expeditions into Brunian holdings; it also would continue the supply of grain from the west to the east, and keep the capital of Garrick afloat. By seizing it, he could also keep it from enemy hands. He marched west only a week after his arrival, a combined force of nearly 15,000 with him, leaving behind the rest of the Tryrian-Rangosian force to fortify the capitol. Unfortunately for the allied forces, Bard had also seen the strategic importance of the crossroads, and wished to seize it in order to allow his own army the logistic control. With the south of Tryr already under his control, he wished to extend his dominance to the west as well. He put the levies of Wulroth Ironhand on the road north to Crisshy, bolstered by a few thousand of his own men, a force of 7,000. The allied forces arrived first, however, and under the command of General Claus Weighmat, began to dig in and build fortifications at the elevated position at Hentoil's Hill. A few days later, Wulroth's forces arrived, and, per his orders from Bard, began to probe the defenses with skirmishers. He sent word of the situation to Bard, and continued to search for weaknesses against the allies. Upon hearing of this, Bard spirited himself over to the battlefield with reinforcements. Varagyr refused to budge an inch, and calmly ordered his men to hold their ground and continue to ship food east. Bard soon arrived on the scene with 1,500 extra men, and upon seeing the newly constructed fortifications, immediately ordered an assault, believing he could easily break apart their lines with one hard push. Unfortunately, the allied lines were stronger than they looked, and the Brunians were unable to break them, with Wulroth again badly wounded in the battle, returning to Teraholm to convalesce. Finally recognizing that he was both outnumbered and out-fortified, Bard retreated south, looking to maneuver around the bastion. Varagyr, on the other hand, was intimidated by how aggressively Bard had attacked, and anticipated that Bard had far more men in reserve. Wishing to save the army to fight another day, he retreated back to Garrick, having bloodied Brun's nose, yet unable to establish a decisive hold on the crossroads. Crisshy remained unoccupied, with neither side being able to exploit its importance. No further full scale battles were waged that year, as Bard sunk his claws deeper into the south of Tryr, and the Tryrian-Rangosian forces recovered from their numerical losses. * Battle of Bitterbird Farmstead (377) With the dawn of the new year, both sides drew up their plans for war. Upon hearing news of Laashburk's invasion of Brun, Varagyr, working in tandem with Slovak, planned on putting the pressure upon Bard's main force in the south of Tryr, forcing him either to retreat to his own territory to defend it from the Drow, or lose his homeland. Bard on the other hand, having not heard news yet of the victory at the Western Pass, was concerned upon hearing of Laashburk's invasion from the north into Brun itself. He began to organize a staggered retreat from Tryr, leaving behind fewer and fewer numbers of men, until finally only a token force under Rossarch remained, serving as outriders and pillagers of the Tryrian countryside. All of this he wished to accomplish before the snows started to melt and the allied forces made their move. However, Varagyr and Slovak wished to perhaps catch the Brunians off guard, and launched an offensive campaign in mid February with an overall force of some 34,000 men, double the size of Bard's army. Accompanying the forces were Lord Protector Gossoth Yond, a hugely obese behemoth of a man, who required an ox to bear his weight, King Slovak, and Generals Gordon Onock and Claus Weighmat. Not attending was the Crown Prince Trenchon, who Slovak ordered to stay behind in order to preserve their bloodline in case anything happened to himself. Initial contact was made with Caeseth Craw's dragonborn force at the Bitterbird Farmstead, where he had set up winter camps. Caeseth's 3,000 men were taken by surprise by the allied vanguard of a smiliar size under Varagyr himself, and Caeseth was grievously wounded and unable to take command. Rossarch, who was nearby with a force of some 500 cavalry, arrived at the field and managed to stabilize the situation, riding off the pursuing forces and allowing them to retreat mostly intact. He quickly sent word back to Bard of the advancing army, and went to work attempting to slow their march. * Battle of Twoffes Wood (377) Snowfire arrived soon soon after Bard received Rossarch's message, with the Lord Protector's return having been slowed by the invasion of the drow. He told Bard that the threat from the Western Wastes was over, but that if he did not abandon his position in Tryr, he risked losing his kingdom and his army. Recognizing that this point was perhaps the deciding moment of the war, Bard gambled everything on a desperate defense of his position in Tryr, hoping that he could decisively defeat Tryr once and for all. By knocking them out of the war, he would eliminate his major rival in the area, and secure his flank against drow attacks. With a majority of his generals either wounded or defending Brun, he was down to just Snowfire, Rossarch, and himself. He set up a defensive line near Twoffes Wood, a hilly area that provided excellent defensive cover. The allied forces came upon them soon after, and quickly deployed nearby. Varagyr was hesitant to assault. While there were reports of an invasion of Brunian territory, their army was still apparently intact, and they had no desire to retreat. A victory here could very well mean the ultimate defeat of the Brunians, and give the allied forces a much needed morale boost, but the dragonborn's defensive positions were significant. Even still, the Tryrian forces were of dubious quality, and he had no desire to bring them up against battle-hardened foes. Slovak, on the other hand, did not share Varagyr's misgivings. He wished for bloody vengeance against the dragonborn for killing his son and laying waste to his kingdom, and advocated highly for an assault. Varagyr, realizing that his food supply would not last him forever, especially in winter, reluctantly agreed to attack, and the battle began in earnest on the 18th. Recognizing Bard's personal battle flag at the center of the Brunian line, Varagyr concentrated his assault most intensely on that point, hoping to break their army in half and destroy it in detail. For two days the battle was waged between the hosts, with the dragonborn fighting fiercely for every inch of territory that they gave. Initially, organized engagements and clearly defined battle lines ruled the field, but as time went on, disorganization took over. The allied men, already fatigued from the long march in the frigid weather, became more and more exhausted as the cold seeped through their clothing and armor, and their exhaustion continued as they were forced to continually fight. The dragonborn's thick scaly hides protected them from such fierce weather, and their fierce constitution allowed them to continue the fight. Under the leadership of Rossarch, the dragonborn utilized a variety of unorthodox tactics, causing avalanches using the dragonborn's inherent fire breath, hiding in the snow to ambush allied patrols, and . The fight became a complete and utter mess, with a battlefield of several miles across, and little cohesion between the forces; orders often were completely lost in the snow, and the army broke into small squads, often times without a commander. Eventually, the dragonborn's center began to buckle back under the sheer weight of the forces arrayed against them, and the allied forces raggedly surged forward, sensing victory was approaching. However, this sprang Bard's trap. The left and right flanks, under Rossarch and Snowfire, had slowly been extending their forces and encircling the allied forces at the center of the valley. The disarrayed allies were caught in the resulting deathtrap, with thousands being caught completely off guard and trampled in the ensuing panic. Gossoth was wrenched from his ox, his head being brutally smashed in soon after. Slovak was caught attempting to rally the forces and was bodily launched from his own horse, soon suffocating from his own men squashing him to death in their panic to flee. The Brunians suffered terrible casualties, with 5,000 fatalities, nearly a third of their force. Their men were also completely exhausted. However, the allies suffered far more catastrophic casualties, losing nearly two thirds of their force. Nearly the entire Tryrian force was wiped out, with only a token force of a couple thousand escaping the trap under the command of Gordon Onock. Their King and Lord Protecter were both dead, and nearly their entire lineage of chivalric knights were wiped out. The Rangosians fared a bit better, with nearly 8,000 making it out under Varagyr and General Claus and rallying a few miles back. Gordon sent a message to the Rangosians asking them to help him organize a defense of the capital, a request promptly ignored by Varagyr as he marched his men straight back to Rangos. Bard had won one of the most stunning victories in history, completely destroying his enemy's army as a fighting force, and with comparatively significant less loss of life in his own army. Recognizing that the war in Tryr had effectively been decided, he allowed his men to rest for a few more days, engorging themselves upon the supply train left behind in the allies' rout. He marched on Garrick with 10,000 men, sending the rest under Snowfire to break the siege of Teraholm, and drive the drow back to their own lands. * Sacking of Garrick (377) Upon hearing of the cataclysmic defeat at Twoffes Wood, the various nations of the River Kingdoms reacted in turn. Brell and the Woodland Realm finally had enough popular support to declare in favor of Brun, and they declared their intent on coming to his defense. Bard was furious that they had waited so long to come to his aid, and saw them as nothing more than gloryseekers that sought to take advantage of the victory he had worked so hard to achieve. King Geckos quickly ordered his son to return to Rangos in order to abandon the sinking ship that was Tryr and to organize a defense of their territory. King Hakim Orlis of Pentos, being paid off by both sides to enter in the war in their alliance, chose to remain neutral, a fact that went highly unappreciated by several of his vassals, who wished to be on the winning side when the dust was cleared. They were sick of Pentos continually letting itself get dominated by other nations, and wished for a change both in temperament and leadership. Trenchon Auchmes promptly crowned himself king of Tryr, and named Gordon Onock his Lord Protector, charging him with the defense of Garrick. Gordon recognized the absolute futility of the situation, yet loyally began to construct the necessary and proper fortifications, drafting the youngest boys and old men to serve, and scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel when it came to money, equipment, and provisions. Bard's force, which had been leisurely living off the land in their approach, quickly increased their speed upon hearing of Brell's enter into the conflict, as they feared that they would attempt to take their loot from the city. Gordon, wishing to stem the terrible damage that had been wrought upon his people, told his men to fight for three hours, and if they were still coming, to surrender; there was no need for them to die for a lost cause. Perhaps the dragonborn would be willing to show mercy if the resistance was relatively light. And so, the dragonborn host fell upon Garrick, bolstered by some of Caeseth Craw's forces, who had returned from his wounding. They quickly breached the walls, and many Tryrians were not even able to fight for three hours, surrendering as soon as their walls were breached. After a fierce but brief fight, the Brunians stormed the palace, with what little resistance still remaining crumbling to pieces. Trenchon offered his sword to Bard in surrender, but Bard was in no mood for mercy. He ordered the execution of the king and the entirety of the royal family, with not even the infants and children spared the massacre. He rounded up the heads of each noble family and had them executed as well, with none being spared from his vengeful bloodlust. Upon the end of this terrible massacre, Gordon approached the king and asked him to show the people of Tryr some mercy, as they were but victims to the actions of their leaders; Bard complied, sparing the commonfolk, and executing Gordon as well. The entirety of the Tryrian leadership was eliminated, with nearly their whole lineage of knights gone as well. Garrick was nearly destroyed during the battle, with many other towns and villages remaining in ruin. Tryr as a nation was rendered effectively nonexistant, with chaos and anarchy ruling, and bandits prowling every road and river. Bard, not caring for the damage he had done, simply marched his men on Rangos. Teraholm Campaign (376-377) * Battle of the Western Pass (376) Upon hearing of the uniting of the Western Waste tribes under High Chief Ooblon, Bard ordered Snowfire to deal with the situation, giving him the command of the 2,000 men he left to guard the camps. Snowfire marched his men west and met up with an additional 1,000 Brownback men, setting up some ramshackle fortifications for the better part of the last half of the year. He came to rely heavily upon the young bright Savrek, who organized several traps to slow and inhibit the barbarian advance. The massive barbarian horde arrived in November, with tens of thousands of men ready to attack. Snowfire refused Ooblon's offers of surrender, and a pitched battle taking place over the month took place, with the disorganized nature of the barbarian army allowing themselves to be taken advantage of time and time again. They suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, with both Ooblon and his warchief, the Grand Talon, slain in battle. Savrek was wounded, along with around 600 Dragonborn casualties. With the death of their leaders and running low on food, the horde fragmented and retreated back into the Wastes. Snowfire quickly rode back to Tryr, attempting to join up with Bard once again. * Siege of Makenth (376-377) Having received the * Siege of Teraholm (377) Rangosian Campaign (377-378) Battle of Teavlon (377) Siege of Montgomery (377-378) Durian Campaign (377-379) * Battle of Greenriver (377) * Battle of Shadenrol (377) * Battle of the Bluffs (378) * Battle of Dormansk (378) * Battle of the Bubbling Waters (378) * Battle of Kettlesville (378) * Battle of Saravir (378) * Siege of Renheim (378) * Battle of Ussov (379) * Battle of Tenhold (379) Upper Noan Campaign (377-378) Battle of the Barrow's Den (377) Battle of the Stony Ford (378) Battle of the Lower Marshes (378) Laashburk Campaign (379-380) Battle of Kraza'Gmah (379) Battle of the Glade (379) Siege of Mogoth-Ur (379-380) Battle of Xyleon (380) Battle at the Black Gate (380) Crusades Battles Category:Conflicts